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b
Former Member
Send PMRoyse City, TX - USA
Joined: 11/16/2007
Posts: 62
Vette(s): 1978 L48, p/s, p/w/ factory ac car factory manual trans has a 350 crate engine w/260hp, but also have original which may be rebuilt- we also have a 76 w/ a 454, and 74 350 in various stages of being rebuilt, plus an 86 and an 02....
OK- so- I got the 78 home a couple of nights ago, and did a little research, but you all know so much more than I do.....please tell me if my info is correct. Apparently 40,000 or so vettes were made in 78, about 3500 were manuals, the rest auto, out of the 3500 manuals, about 1200 had factory ac, and only about 500 anniversary editions were manual- does this sound correct? If so, I guess I accidentally got a pretty rare car- but either way- I love the thing!!!! Just curious...
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How do you know that 1200 manuals had ac, and how do you know that only 500 SA's were manual? I had one. Ordered it myself.
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From the Black Book.
1978 prod. 40,274 PLUS 6502 Pace Cars. 46776 total.
38614 automatics plus 3385 CLOSE ratio 4 speeds. Not counted in options lists are the 4777 WIDE ratio 4 speeds that were considered standard equipment.
Only 2636 total DID NOT have A/C.
There's no real breakdown of which combinations were made, just speculation. L82-4speed NON A/C would be rarest. Anniversary painted were actually the most common with 15283 painted grey/silver.
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20111115155328r.jpg)
Going by the Corvette Black Book, 46,776 were made in '78 including Pace Cars. Deduct cars with auto trans option (38,614) and that leaves 8,162 manuals. The book list the M21 (close ratio 4 speed) option as 3,385 units. So the other 4,000 + were the regular manual 4 speed which I think was for the base engine L48.
As far as the number of other options such as AC, Silver Ann paint or L82 paired up with a manual, that I don't know. Anyway, you got yourself a sweet ride.
As far as the number of other options such as AC, Silver Ann paint or L82 paired up with a manual, that I don't know. Anyway, you got yourself a sweet ride.
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Gotta love that Black Book.
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b
Former Member
Send PMRoyse City, TX - USA
Joined: 11/16/2007
Posts: 62
Vette(s): 1978 L48, p/s, p/w/ factory ac car factory manual trans has a 350 crate engine w/260hp, but also have original which may be rebuilt- we also have a 76 w/ a 454, and 74 350 in various stages of being rebuilt, plus an 86 and an 02....
Thats why I was asking here- I did all the research I could, on this site, as well as the other accurate sites, and was just wondering, based on the numbers I was seeing. I love the car either way, and with it being stock silver- not anniversary paint, etc, then with the other searches, hey, again, I was just seeing if anyone else knew more info
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b
Former Member
Send PMRoyse City, TX - USA
Joined: 11/16/2007
Posts: 62
Vette(s): 1978 L48, p/s, p/w/ factory ac car factory manual trans has a 350 crate engine w/260hp, but also have original which may be rebuilt- we also have a 76 w/ a 454, and 74 350 in various stages of being rebuilt, plus an 86 and an 02....
THanks- I have to agree!!! It is tons of fun to drive
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R
Hey bgilt,does it look like this 
C3VR Lifetime Member #93
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6
Don't want to burst your bubble, but there are no records from GM to determine the breakdown on options and on which cars they were installed. Ditto for interior/exterior color combinations. The best you could do would be to come up with the dealer invoice for your car, a copy of the build sheet, or the original window sticker. Any of those documents would verify how your specific '78 was built and with what options.
You can take the published figures (The Corvette Black Book and other references) and extrapolate the numbers. If you do the math correctly, you can come up with a "best guess" figure, but that's all it is -- a guess.
Cruise and enjoy your '78.
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The technical term is a SWAG.
Scientific
Wild
Ass
Guess
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in Forum: C3 General Discussion
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